The Cold Word
by jmorgensturn
Summary: A young, retired soldier is offered a job at Hogwarts unexpectedly. She never expected any of this to happen, let alone to begrudgingly find love in the castle. Follow her on her journey of rediscovery. Slightly AU, post hogwarts with a live Severus and Dumbledore.
1. Chapter One - Warm White Wine

With a sigh, she looked down at the parchment and badly formed ceramic ashtray on her cluttered coffee table. At least, she thought it was an ashtray. You could never be sure with Albus' portkeys. It was a genuine letter, she could be sure of that. She looked over everything at least five times with all the proper spells. The only thing that pinged on her radar was a bit of dust that turned out to be lemon drop residue.

Groaning, she decided the only possible thing to do was make a dreaded phone call. Her cell hardly rang once before there was an answer at the other end.

"Rue, honey, is that you?" An elderly woman's voice answered on the other end. "What's wrong, you never call? Do you need money again? I would have thought that-"

"No, Mom. It's not money." She leaned back against the torn blue leather couch. While it was an eyesore, she couldn't bring herself to throw it away. Even after the settlement she received from her last deployment. It wasn't a matter of money, it was sentiment.

Her mother tittered on the other end. "Well honey, what is it then? It nearly gave me a heart attack when your name flashed up on your fathers portable. I thought you'd been found dead or summat, and their first instinct was to call your parent's, you know?" She was making this more difficult. "Now come on Melarue, spit it out."

"I've received a letter from Albus." Melarue finally said, after a pause.

"Oh darling, that's wonderful!" Her mom explained. "You know, when he asked for your address I hardly thought he'd actually send post. I mean, he could have just sent you an owl."

The hazelnut haired girl began to hit her head against the wood paneling behind the leather couch, repeatedly.

"Melarue Janie Embrouillé, you stop hitting your head on the wall this instant. You know what your doctor said about that last time." Her mother chastised.

Shen groaned again. "Mom, I was 12."

"Yes, Mel. I know, but puberty was very hard for you and you began to act out." She began to ramble. "I mean, first finding out that you had magical talents and whatnot with Pa and I being squibs, and then you became a woman and-"

"Mom!" She yelled, "He offered me a job."

"Well of course he did, dear. You were in the army, a very powerful spy, and you trained for many, many years. You traveled the world, you have multiple degrees of study, I mean you can play the banjo I don't think I can think of one other person who knows how to play the ban-" She was off again.

This was pointless. "Can you put Dad on, please?" There was a pause and then a maternal sigh. When she could sense her father's presence on the other end of the line, Melarue breathed in. "Hi Pa."

"My baby girl." She could her the smile in her old father's voice. "I hear Albus wants you to come work at the school."

Her father's voice calmed her anxiety and she began to contemplate the proposal. There was silence for a few moments, until finally. "I'm scared, Dad." The words hung in the air. The squib's daughter had been through a lot, and that weight hung heavy over everyone close to her, especially her parents.

Mr. Embrouillé coughed the emotion out of his voice before continuing. "I think you should go for it, bear."

So her mind was made up. After setting down her cellphone on the table, her eyes traced over the wrinkled letter in front of her.

_Should you accept my offer of the position for Defense Against The Dark Arts Professor, please send reply. As this role is now a partnership teaching position, I will promptly return a timetable for your meetings with your new co-professor. He has done the duty of preparing most of the first weeks curriculum. The port key enclosed should activate one week to terms beginning, on Monday at 1:00PM, giving you adequate time to prepare your belongings and make any arrangements necessary. _

_Should you refuse, please keep the portkey as a token of our continued friendship. And do give old Uncle Albus a visit once in awhile, yeah?_

_Yours,_

_Albus _

Melarue couldn't help cracking a smile and looking at the badly formed ashtray. It was made from red clay and looked to be hand painted in soft yellow and turquoise triangles. "Dammit Albus, I don't want your pottery." She said to the ceiling before reaching for her forgotten glass on the table. The girl let the sweetness of the now warm white wine trace over her tongue. With an audible noise that sounded a lot like a "bah" she summoned an ink pen and scrawled 'Sure.' at the bottom of the page, signing it simply 'M.' before calling over her owl to return the letter to her old family friend.


	2. Chapter Two - Wounded Knee

Waking with a jolt on Sunday afternoon, Melarue was disoriented to realize that there was a now empty bottle of wine on the floor and a weird clay ware ashtray on her coffee table. "Oh yes, the job." She scoffed. Stumbling to get up, she realized not all the alcohol had left her body. With a giggle she began the journey to the bathroom to empty her bladder. "Fucking dreams." She had hoped the letter and phone call to her parents was a dream, but instead last nights dreams were much like they always were.

**"Jane!" Her codename was called as a curse whizzed past her head. Deflecting curses left and right as she rolled out of the path of the wizards behind her. Ducking behind a piece of rubble she found one of her fellow soldiers and surrounded them with a shield and distraction spell, not that much distraction was needed to get the wizards off their back in the middle of a war. "Jesus Jane I'm dying over here." The soldier coughed. ** **Blood was pouring from a badly healed wound in his neck. His hand covered it but there was nothing he could do after obviously exhausting his magical force with the bad healing spell. "You're fine. You'll be fine." She breathed to the man, making sure not to react.** **Melarue was a spy in the French Wizarding Armed Forces. Of course, since she was a secret agent, most of her fellow soldiers didn't even know what her role was. Mostly, she just did a little bit of everything. She went by the name Jane Pierre, and had dropped out of wizarding school early to train under the best. Now, five years after her intended graduation date, she was deep in the heart of a world war secret to much of the world. She had two degrees (in Dark Arts Studies and Charms, acquired during deployment) and was one of the most lauded wizards on the Light side of the war, but no one could know until the war was over or after her death, whichever came first. ** **She quickly patched up his visible wounds and sent a flare only visible to the light side, one of her own inventions, into the air before breaking through the bubble she made around them and continued on fighting. ** **Eventually she pressed on and made it near a target she had been trailing for weeks. They weren't sure what the man's role was yet, but they knew he was parading as a cadet on the front line and his position was definitely a lot higher than that. Earlier that morning, Mel got the orders to take him out and return his body to their camp. ** **From behind a smashed rampart, she completed a scan of his protection spells. He was warded so much the reading came back neon, definitely not a cadet. And it appeared no spell Melarue knew would be able to break through that shell. But she had been trained in hand to hand combat, which was apparently something this genius hadn't expected. And his back was turned.** **She took her chance, pulling a dagger from the sheath at her side. She surged forward silently, plunging the dagger through his heart as an electric surge shot through her body and she fell to the ground. ** **That was the day Melarue took out one of the most deranged terrorists the dark side of wizarding magic had ever produced. That man parading as a cadet was not just a high commander, he was the leader of the whole movement. But Mel was in a coma when that was revealed, and no one knew if she'd ever wake up. **

Melarue sighed. "Professor Embrouillé, huh?" She laughed sardonically to herself. "When will society realize that war heroes are just broken people with a death wish and not fit to teach children."

"You always talk to yourself?" A gruff voice came from behind her, as she snapped back to present day.

Toe catching the bottom of the bathroom rug in surprise, she began to topple face first towards the sink.

"Capturam!" Was spoken behind her before her fall was stopped mid-air, and she was lowered gently to the floor. "Solvo." It was as if invisible bonds were released from her body. "For a trained assassin, I am greatly concerned with your mental sanity and also your ability to protect yourself." Melarue's head snapped behind her angrily.

"Fucking cat!" She exclaimed, taking in the creature in her hallway. The ginger-colored animal laid down and began to lick its paws. "How do you keep getting in here?

He smiled, if cats did that sort of thing. "You know I'm a kneazle. I've mentioned that multiple times." He was covered in ginger fur, everywhere except his tail, at the end of which was a tuft of fluffy fur.

"Ugh. I have to pee, don't move." She slammed the bathroom door before opening it again. She performed the wandless spell "Silencio," and slammed the door again.

After splashing water on her face, Melarue opened the door to a pouting kneazle. "You can't keep coming back here." He glared at her until she cast "finite silencio."

"I'm your kneazle, I chose you." The creature explained, stepping forward to rub against her legs from head to tail. She grimaced and kicked out at him, not intending harm.

"You realize I hate cats." She said, shuddering. "I'm allergic."

The cat narrowed his oval eyes. "You're lying. I'm a sentient being, you know."

"My luck, a talking, sentient cat the size of a small dog." Mel pushed her locks over her shoulder and walked into the bedroom adjacent to the bathroom. The kneazle followed. "Well I'm moving, and you can't come with."

He flicked his tail annoyedly. "You're lying again."

With a groan she flopped on the bed, and then groaned again when her impending hangover protested. "Ugh. I am moving, I took a job at Hogwarts." She said into the pillow at her face.

"So you'll take me with you." The kneazle explained, shaking the bed as he hopped up and crawled onto Melarue's back. She stiffened and the creature paused on her back.

"Do you have a name?" The witch asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

As if he had a smile in his voice, the kneazle responded "Elvis," and settled onto her back after kneading around. "It'll be like I'm not even there." He said with a yawn before drifting to sleep on the girls back.


	3. Chapter Three - Where Is My Mind?

"Dreaded- Kneazle- Son of a-" Melarue struggled against the cat, clawing tooth and nail to resist the expensive leather carrier tote she bought special. "The portkey is about to expire, I don't want to have to petrify you Elvis!" Admitting defeat, and proud of the damage he had already caused, the sentient creature's muscles went limp at the word "petrify" and sunk dreamily into the luxury animal carrier. Choosing a wizard with expensive taste and disposable income did have it's perks, he supposed.

Over the past night and morning, it seems the two got accustomed to each other. Mel decided she had always wanted some sort of a pet, and despite her loathing of the feline variety, they did seem to mesh well. Elvis was largely self-sufficient, he didn't come with any ridiculous adoption fees, and she had heard of kneazles that possessed speech but never witnessed one in person. Elvis, on the other hand, preferred her for her rather squishy and warm backside, and for the tins of unopened tuna in her cupboard.

With her belongings shrunken in her jacket pocket, and her owl Jep in one carrier and Elvis in the other, she grabbed the glowing ashtray from the table. However, it was one second too late, and the magical item now sat dull in her hand.

"Drat, we'll have to catch the express and write from the train." She sighed, taking one last glance around apartment from the front door before shutting it behind her, leaving the expired portkey alone in the empty room.

MEANWHILE

The Great Hall sat empty except for the handful of professors lunching on both sides of the head table. Albus Dumbledore appeared excited like a young boy on the eve of Christmas. While this was nothing knew, it irritated Severus Snape who was seated at his left.

"Cold feet, I suppose." The lanky man leaned back in his chair with a creak. His long, stained fingers scratched across the faintest stubble at his chin. "Your new star professor is nowhere to be seen it appears."

Albus nearly twinkled as he popped a lemon drop from his pocket into his Earl Grey and stirred it with a biscuit. Severus nearly retched at the motion. "She'll be here, dear boy. She was always like that as a child, never on time but never late. She'll bust through the doors when we least expect it, I expect."

"Albus, if you expect it it won't be when-"

The older man cut him off. "Let it be, Severus. And you know the deal, either you co-teach this position or you don't teach it at all. That will be the last I hear of this matter." The gathered professors sat in awkward silence at the outburst, it was rare when the father figure chastised the soon-to-be former potions professor. The headmaster cleared his throat as a lone owl flew, with a flight imperfection almost like a limp, towards him and landed near the pudding. He hesitantly held out the scroll tied at his leg for Albus to untie. Conversation started up again when the professors realized they were staring.

Albus hummed as his eyes traced across the note. "There, as I expected. Her portkey expired and she'll be in on the Hogwarts Express by dinner. Now off to the owlery with you." He fed the owl a piece of his breakfast before it took flight to explore the grounds of the castle and find it's new home. He turned as if nothing had happened and addressed the table, "Has anyone seen Harry this morning?"


	4. Chapter Four - Mud on the Tires

Melarue stopped in Hogsmeade on the way to the castle to get directions. In her hasty response notifying Albus of her alternate transportation plans, she forgot to ask how to actually get to the school from the express. She also forgot to ask if the express actually ran before the school was in term, but the conductor took pity on her and made a special trip. Which in retrospect really seemed quite surprising but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Luckily, as she was asking, a booming voice loomed behind her. "You must be the new professor, 'M guessin'." She looked and took in the giant man behind her. His toothy ear to ear grin hidden in a large beard helped dispel any assumptions she would make from his burly appearance. "Rubeus Hagrid, groundskeeper at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." He was too large to be a normal wizard, and too small to be considered a giant. His hand completely closed over Mel's as she reached out for a handshake.

"Nice to meet you." She smiled meekly, tired from her travels and weary of the attention bestowed upon her. "I was actually just asking about how to get to the castle, but they weren't having any of it." The woman behind the counter of the Three Broomsticks looked disapprovingly at the new girl. She had flecks of silver hair twirled into her ginger locks, and smile lines on her face.

Hagrid smiled brighter, if it was possible. "Don't mind Madame Rosmerta, she does what she can to protect our secrecy up there, what with what happened before and all." He was alluding to the last war of Hogwarts, when Harry Potter killed Voldemort at last, Mel was sure. "Come on, I parked my motorcycle outside and I can drive us up real quick-like." He grabbed one of the animal carriers from the girl and led her out of the pub.

MEANWHILE

Her skin was like porcelain. That was all Severus could remember thinking from the dinner table as Hagrid held the doors of the hall open and she ducked under his massive arms with a laugh. Her skin was like porcelain, her hair like threads of bronze, and he hated her with every fibre of his being. He was staring at her obviously with his mouth open, watching her dodge clumps of foot shaped mud caked on the floor when he received a sharp rap to the knee.

"It's impolite to stare, Severus." The headmaster intoned before standing. The professor immediately found great interest in his plate of food. "Welcome!" He twinkled, leaving the table and approaching them. He rang a tiny bell in his pocket before embracing Melarue. "Welcome, my dear. I hope you can find Hogwarts to be a rather comforting home for the coming months." A house elf appeared with a 'pop' and grabbed the hissing carrier from Hagrid's hand, followed by another 'pop' and it was gone. Worry clouded Mel's features as more house elves apparated into the room and took her things from her one by one. "Fear not, they're simply bringing your thinks to your quarters so you're able to sit and eat."

He led her to an empty chair across the table from his own and pulled it out for her. Over the next hour she gorged herself on a fine spread while all the professors introduced themselves, well, all but one. The dark man next to Albus stayed silent and had eyes only for his food until the headmaster introduced him as her new co-professor. Severus simply made quick eye-contact with a smile that didn't reach his eyes before excusing himself from the table and leaving with a swirl of pitch-black robes.

Minutes passed in silence until the chair next to her was pulled out. "Sorry about the mud." A male voice said sheepishly. Melarue blinked and turned to him.

"Excuse me?" She tiredly questioned after clearing her throat. She realized then that it was Harry Potter, the Boy who Lived, Savior of the Wizarding World.

He laughed, pushing his messy fringe away from his eyes. "The mud on the floor. I realize now that it's a mess. I was out on the pitch, Poppy made me go clean myself off before sitting for the meal but I didn't realize I had made a mess of the whole hall." He smelled earthy, like grass, but he was wearing a clean maroon jumper and gray slacks. Mel noticed that he was the only one other than her not wearing robes. "I'm Harry, by the way. I'm told we have a lot in common." He shook her hand with a firm, strong handshake. His hands were calloused, she noticed.

"Right. Poppy." Melarue nodded. "Mediwitch, she works in the infirmary." She remembered quietly.

Harry grinned. "Perfect, I'm surprised you've remembered them so quickly. Of course this isn't everyone, but it's a good handful of us. I teach quidditch here." He explained. Mel gaped, taking in the table. There were seven professors aside from Dumbledore, Harry and herself. She wondered how many more were missing. "I believe you have yet to meet Professor's Granger, Longbottom, and of course Severus isn't here either." He took a mental headcount, looking down the long table at the various teachers engaged in conversation.

"Ah, I've met Professor Snape." Melarue explained, and then quietly continued her meal.


End file.
